The Purley Transport
Preservation Group and its Predecessors - A
History

The origins of the group go
back to April 1977, when the RT2177 Preservation
Group was formed with a view to preserving RT2177
(KGU 106) but in the event the bus was not
acquired, being sold on by the vendor to Kingston
Plant Hire Ltd. A short while afterwards, RT1784
(KYY 622) was purchased from Ted Brakell, the
well known dealer in former London buses and the
original group was renamed the RT1784
Preservation Group to reflect the ownership of
the acquired vehicle. The bus, however, was only
retained until February 1980 when it was sold on
for further preservation. At the time, the
members of the group were Brian Smith, Alan
Daniels, Mick Durell, Brian Dee and Jack
Honeybourne who also collectively formed Daniel
D. Smith Buses as a trading company
for the purpose of buying and selling buses. One
of the first buses to be traded was
RT2839 (LYF 486), purchased in August 1977 again
from Ted Brakell but it was sold on some nine
months later. Then followed the acquisition of
RTL1427 (NLE701), which was purchased from a
fruit farmer at Mereworth, Kent, who had used the
bus for staff transport. The vehicle was
initially preserved under the auspices of the
RT1784 P.G.

One notable purchase by Daniel D.
Smith Buses in 1979 was CR36 (FXT 142) an example
of the first rear-engined single deck bus to be
put into service in Great Britain just at the
outbreak of the Second World War. The vehicle was
re-patriated from Cyprus where it had been
operated for several years along with a
considerable number of British buses, which had
been exported to the island in the 1950s.
However, the bus was only kept for a
comparatively short period as in 1980, it was
sold on to Gordon Laming of Coulsdon  the
bus has long since been dismantled and the
remains scrapped.

The next bus to be traded by Daniel D. Smith
Buses was RT3865 (LLU 664), which was owned for
about six months in 1979 but sold on to a carpet
manufacturer in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Next came
RT2449 (KLB 828), which again was bought by the
trading company in 1979 but it was
decided to retain the bus in preservation in view
of its general overall condition. Prior to
acquisition, the bus had been painted white but
repainted into London Transport livery just
before it had ventured on a round trip to Libya.
It had been fitted out as a
hospitality vehicle and was kept in
this configuration, the number of seats having
been reduced to about thirty. Unfortunately, the
bus was broken into by three youths on 9th April
1985, vandalised and set on fire, completely
destroying the bodywork. The chassis was retained
with the intention of it being a source of spare
parts but it was found on inspection that it
would have provided little of any value. The
chassis however eventually found a purchaser and
was sold at the end of December 1991 to Tim
Stubbs, of Derby.

In the meantime, a Leyland Atlantean, (PSC
341G), was purchased by Daniel D. Smith Buses in
July 1984 from Lothian Regional Transport
(formerly Edinburgh Corporation) and was hired
out to Ebdons Coaches of Sidcup for use on
Round London Sightseeing Tours. It
was retained for about three years but it was
sold in August 1987 to Browns Bus Service
of Welling, Kent.

A replacement for RT 2449 was found in the
guise of RT604 (HLX 421), again purchased by
Daniel D. Smith Buses, in April 1986. The bus had
originally been bought from a dealer on
paper by the trading company in 1979 but
was sold on to Tony Pink of Chatham for
preservation. However, he decided to dispose of
the bus through lack of funds and this was the
second vehicle to be owned by the present Group.
Yet another example of the RT family RT1396, (KXW
495), was bought by Daniel D. Smith Buses in
April 1987 to save the vehicle from being
converted into a burger bar. However,
the Group decided that it was uneconomical to
retain a third bus in preservation and the
vehicle was sold in July 1988 to another
preservationist, John Bragga of Huntingdon.

The original five group members were joined in
1980 by Maurice Doggett and Alan Funnell and
later by Bill Jones, Greg Nardinochi and Len
Brown but all except Brain Smith and Maurice
Doggett left the two Groups progressively over
the following ten years or so. In September 1989,
it was decided to re-title the RT1784
Preservation Group to the RTL1427 Preservation
Group to reflect the ownership of that bus
although the long departed RT1784 is still, in
fact, in preservation. The ownership of RT604 was
transferred to the newly formed RT604
Preservation Group at the same time. By September
1990, several new members had joined the two
groups, Phil Stringer, Mike Dopson, Peter Mason
and Ray Dunkley, thus reducing the total number
of partners to seven. In September 1990, it was
decided that a re-organisation was needed as
running two separate groups, together with Daniel
D. Smith Buses, had become unnecessarily
complicated. And so, the Purley Transport
Preservation Group was formed as a new
partnership although Daniel D. Smith Buses is
still extant but dormant. Paul Green, Mark
Bonello and Martin Johnston joined the
partnership in January 1991, May 1994 and
September 1994 respectively following the earlier
departure of Peter Mason and Ray Dunkley who left
to form their own preservation group but
regrettably Mark Bonello died suddenly on 25th
January 1995 at the early age of 38. The
partnership, therefore, remained at six although
Martin Johnston bought a coach in December 1998,
thus fulfilling a long-standing personal
ambition.

Maurice Doggett had also nurtured a
long-standing ambition to own a bus belonging to
the Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. Ltd., an
operator in which he has had a life long
interest. One particular bus, a Bristol VR, which
had been the 2500th vehicle to enter the Eastern
Counties fleet, both new and second-hand, in
April 1976, was the subject of his ambition. When
the bus came up for withdrawal from service in
November 1996 and with the consent of the other
partners in the group, the bus was purchased in
March 1997. Unfortunately, ownership of NAH 135P
turned out to be a disappointment to Maurice
Doggett due to various mechanical problems but a
stroke of luck found the bus being purchased in
August 1999 by the Eastern Transport Collection
Society for continued preservation.

It was intended that the two buses owned by
the group, RT604 and RTL1427 were to be preserved
for as long as possible, with plans for the
internal refurbishment of both vehicles, but
these plans were modified as will be related
later.

It is always a problem for individual
preservationists and groups to find suitable
accommodation and/or parking facilities for their
vehicles but the present group and its
predecessors have been lucky in finding places to
park them, albeit at various locations over the
years. In the early days, the vehicles then owned
were parked at the site of the former gas works
in Purley Way, Croydon and on the premises of
Michael Banfield at Staplehurst, Kent. In 1983,
RT2449 was moved to the car park of the Lewisham
Borough Councils sports club at
Ravensbourne, Kent, to be joined by PSC 341G when
this bus was acquired. This was the location
where RT2449 was vandalised and destroyed but at
the time, PSC 341G was temporarily parked at
Ebdons premises at Sidcup so consequently
escaped being damaged or destroyed - the latter
bus did not return to Ravensbourne but the Group
were able to find parking space in London
Transports Norwood garage for a short while
until it was moved to Ensign Bus Sales
premises at Thurrock, Essex for a year or so
before being sold.

RTL1427, which had been parked at Staplehurst
since being acquired in May 1978, was moved to
the South Croydon garage of London Buses Ltd in
Apirl 1985 where it remained until January 1986.
The bus then moved to the Norwood garage and
stayed there until March 1992 but in the
meantime, RT604 was acquired and moved from
Staplehurst where is was stored by the previous
owner, to join RTL1427 at Norwood. When acquired,
RT1396 was parked alongside RT604 and RTL1427 at
Norwood, but in April 1987, RT604 and RT1396 were
moved to London Buses garage, at Stamford
Hill as space at Norwood was required by the
operators for their own vehicles. However, the
group was able to return RT604 and RT1396 to
Norwood in November 1987, when in the following
July, RT1396 was sold. For a short while between
April and June 1990, RT604 was temporarily parked
on premises of the Territorial Army at Coulsdon
because at the time the group had been advised
that the parking rent for the facilities at
Norwood was to be considerably increased 
RTL1427 was under repair at Norwood at the time
so in the event, it did not move from that
location. However, negotiations with the garage
management allowed the Group to continue to park
their vehicles there and RT604 returned to
Norwood. In March 1992 by when South London
Transport Ltd. had been formed and operated out
of South Croydon, Thornton Heath, Norwood,
Brixton and Streatham garages, Streatham garage
was closed and its allocation of buses were
relocated to the four other garages. The Group
therefore had to move out of Norwood but were
fortunate in finding parking facilities at the
former London Transport garage at Twickenham in
the company of several other preserved buses. The
Groups vehicles stayed there until May 1994
when all the buses housed there moved to another
former London Transport garage, this time at
Norbiton, as the Twickenham premises were sold
for residential redevelopment. However, the
Groups stay at Norbiton was to be short
lived as these premises too were sold for
redevelopment. So in January 1995, the two buses
were moved to the Walworth garage of London Links
Buses Ltd., where they were joined by NAH 135P in
March 1997. However, in August 1997, Walworth
closed as an operational garage and the three
buses were yet again on the move but this time
nearer to home, at the Beddington
Farm Road, Croydon premises of London Links. For
most of the time since the present Group and its
predecessors have owned the various buses, they
had been garaged under cover but RT604 and
RTL1427 were parked in the open at Beddington
Farm Road. They remained at that location until
November 2000, with NAH 135P being sold in the
meantime, when the opportunity arose for the
buses to be parked again under cover and both
vehicles were moved to a large barn at Lingfield,
Surrey shortly afterwards joining a dozen or more
other preserved buses being parked at the same
location. Although a distance of some 14 miles
from our base it was hoped that the
buses would remain at that location for the
foreseeable future. However, this was not to be
as the barn was needed for other purposes and for
the umpteenth time, it was necessary to find
alternative parking facilities yet again. After
making several enquiries of possible parking
sites, the Group were fortunate in finding
premises much nearer to our base to which both
RT604 and RTL1427 were moved in July 2002, with
the former bus being parked in the open and the
latter bus being under cover.

RTL1427 had been scheduled for refurbishment
in mid-2000 but circumstances were such that work
on the vehicle would be deferred for some time.
As already mentioned, RT 604 is also to be
refurbished but for financial reasons, the Group
decided that they could not afford to have the
work done on both vehicles. So the reluctant
decision was taken to sell RTL 1427 and the bus
passed to Pavillion Coaches of Hove in September
2003. This sale presented the opportunity to
undertake the first stage of the refurbishment of
RT 604, commencing early in 2005, which is
anticipated to be spread over three years, the
work being so planned to enable the bus to be
used during the rally seasons.

In the meantime, Martin Johnston left the
Group in August 2002 due to a residential
re-location but the number of partners remains at
six as Michael Ellis subsequently joined the
Group.

Peter Harwood, who had joined the Group in
June 1998, had had a long-standing wish to own a
RF type single deck bus and in August 2004, the
opportunity arose for the Group to purchase RF
600 from Ray Dunkley, a former partner in the
Group. The vehicle was in a particularly good
condition and whilst some mechanical attention
was needed, the body had been refurbished to a
high standard a short while previously, so that
financially this was to the Groups
advantage. However, the bus has since been sold in Sep 2010
so that the Group is now back to owning just one vehicle.
Running
Days held in various parts of the old
Country area of London Transport, RT 604 already
having been entered in such events over the past
five years or so.

Peter regrettably found it necessary to resign
from the Group in May 2007 for personal reasons
and his place has now ben taken up by Steve
Cresswell, thus maintaining the existing number
of six partners.